What did we do with our old calender?

My daughter was keeping an eye on the pictures in the last year calender since I hung it. As soon as the new year  was born , she cut all the  pictures in it and we pasted them on the wall and made a theme with it  to educate her younger brother. On the other hand, the little learner is more interested in peeling them off !

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SmART silhouettes

 

Great was the family sunday at the SMART  musuem, Chicago. It is a day when everybody in a family attend art workshop, do some family project, listen to a concert etc. These silhouettes were done on one such sunday. With the kid standing against a bright light, the shadow is made to fall on a paper taped on the wall. The parent outlines the shadow , cut it out and  all make a collage on the cutout . There was no big trouble in making my daughter stand still , but with my 7 mo old son , we had great difficulty to keep him straight. The light was so bright, he kept turning towards it. The day was filled with activities and gave us memories to be cherished forever.

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Fall colors everywhere!/Rawa Kesari

It is lovely to walk along the road side, making a ‘charak charak’ sound with the leaves . As the leaves fall, they know their destination , still they give their life a colorful ending. Their  bond  with the tree is in the hands of a breeze. Some leaves get knocked by a mild breeze, some are stubborn and yield only to a stormy wind. Some go by the gravity. However they fall, they dress the mother earth  with their vivid colors and do a wavy dance with the kissing wind.

Hey, come on , I know I bored  you. I can hear you  saying ‘come to the point’. I know you guessed it right, it is our first fall in US. Being for the first time, my daughter loves to celebrate all the seasons of the year. She  attended a fall festival in our neighbourhood and  was mimicking it at home . She organised few games and activities, and  set up a food stall. For the food, she chose the  snacks according to the theme like mango juice ,colorful fruit loops etc. So she wanted a dessert in the fall color . There comes our handy menu- rawa kesari. I made in minutes and moulded it like a pumpkin to cheer up my girl’s festive mood.

Ingredients:

Semolina/rawa/sooji- 1 cup

Water- 2 cups

Sugar- 2 cups

Ghee/clarified butter- 1 cup

Cashews and raisins-  – handful

Cardamom- 2 no

Food color-1 pinch

Roast the rawa in ghee slightly. In a heavy non stick pan, boil the water . Add food color to the water. Add the rawa stirring  continuously.There should  not be any lumps . Stir well till it is cooked thoroughly. Now add the sugar , the  rawa will get loosen a little. Add  the powdered cardamom. Heat the ghee on another stove  and pour the melted ghee . First the ghee will get absorbed and later it is ooze out . Stop stirring when  the sweet comes out as a ball. In a separate pan , heat ghee, roast the cashews and raisins. Add to the kesari. Serve hot.

Read here for  ‘why leaves change colors?’

 Read here for ‘ How leaves change colors?’

Read here  for ‘How to  photograph fall colors?’

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Oven baked idol of Lord Ganesh

Yet another creation by my girl. As I told you here, my girl attended  and  really enjoyed the ‘Art  Afternoons’ on wednesdays  at the SMART musuem, this summer.  One such afternoon, we did crafts with oven bake  clay. This is just like  a play doh but needs to be baked at 350 deg for 45 min for hardening.

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My girl in the spotlight!

I have a lovely, active , extraordinary creative  daughter who is a first grader now.As a sample for her activities… This is what she made at the SMART  musuem  (‘Art Wednesdays’) in her summer vacation. Of course , I helped her!!    

    

                           

 

 

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